Iraq:Cabinet drafts law that would strip women of virtually all rights

[cali]

- About two dozen Iraqi women demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against a draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would permit the marriage of nine-year-old girls and automatically give child custody to fathers.

The group's protest was on International Women's Day and a week after the cabinet voted for the legislation, based on Shi'ite Islamic jurisprudence, allowing clergy to preside over marriages, divorces and inheritances. The draft now goes to parliament.

<snip>

The legislation goes to the heart of the divisions in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, as Shi'ite Islamists have come to lead the government and look to impose their religious values on society at large.

It describes girls as reaching puberty at nine, making them fit for marriage, makes the father sole guardian of his children at two and condones a husband's right to insist on sexual intercourse with his wife whenever he wishes.

<snip>

Iraq's current personal status law enshrines women's rights regarding marriage, inheritance, and child custody, and has often been held up as the most progressive in the Middle East.

<snip>

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/08/us-iraq-women-islam-idUSBREA270NR20140308

[malaise]

1. Thanks Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and other war criminals

Same shite happened in Afghanistan.

[polly7]

3. They couldn't give a shit about women anywhere.

In Afghanistan, tribal lords were given Viagra to rape satisfy their numerous child brides in exchange for info.

What's happened to the women in Iraq who were once among the most educated and accomplished in the region sickens me, as it does for all of these 'liberated' countries where women are now being set back decades .... collateral damage for the resource wars.

Marrying girls off at the age of 9 ... what could be more disgusting and heartbreaking.

[malaise]

19. Women, men, children

old young disabled - they don't give a flying fuck about anyone but the 1%.

[polly7]

20. You're right, malaise. nt.

[CrispyQ]

33. "collateral damage for the resource wars."

For the profit of a few.

At nine I was in fourth grade, learning my multiplication tables & playing softball with my friends during recess.

[cali]

4. this is far worse than what happened to women

in Afghanistan and bush cheney etc were not the proximate cause of the oppression of women there. that happened more as a result of Soviet intervention and women were even worse off under the Taliban than after the U.S. invasion- though the much vaunted "we'll rescue the women in Afghanistan" stuff was nonsense. And conditions for women in Afghanistan continue to get worse year after year.

In Iraq, however, under Hussein, women had more rights than just about any other Middle Eastern country. They were the best educated women in the Middle East and were able to go into most professions.

The U.S. bears much of the responsibility for the decline of women's rights in Iraq.

[jsr]

5. Women also held important government positions under Hussein

and none under the current regime.

[malaise]

18. Who were our Western puppets in Afghanistan when the Soviets were there? n/t

[cali]

22. not that simple.

the USSR really does get most of the blame for Afghanistan's turn to fundamentalism. Oh, and President Obama who you excuse from any responsibility for anything at all- which I think is bizarre- was responsible directly for making things even worse in Afghanistan with his surge.

[Comrade Grumpy]

34. The Mujahadeen. n/t

[malaise]

36. And they morphed into

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm the Taliban.

Thanks Comrade Grumpy.

[proudretiredvet]

51. Making this political is a joke.

It has nothing to do with our politics. Islam has been doing all of these things since any modern day politician was even born.

This like saying we payed or didn't pay a snake to slither across the ground. A snake slithers across the ground anyway. Always has, and always will.

And no, I have lived in the Arab Islamic cultures and I do not find anything good about them. I do not like how they treat each other, how they impose their religion on others, or how they treat their wives and daughters.

[hrmjustin]

2. So much for liberating them.

[bemildred]

6. Mission accomplished. nt

[Fumesucker]

7. Beat me to it n/t

[bemildred]

8. It is obvious.

[Tikki]

9. boosh and cheney must be so proud...

'atta boys...


Tikki

[etherealtruth]

10. This was the only likely outcome of our idiotic (and criminal) invasion

Clearly pre-US invasion Iraq was not a Utopia of human rights (to say the least); however, women were equal under the law.

The primary legal underpinning of women's equality is contained in the Iraqi Provisional Constitution, which was drafted by the Ba'ath party in 1970. Article 19 declares all citizens equal before the law regardless of sex, blood, language, social origin, or religion. In January 1971, Iraq also ratified the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which provide equal protection under international law to all.
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/wrd/iraq-women.htm

[polly7]

16. Some more of what they've lost, and 'won'.

Iraqi women at university in Iraq in the 1970s


Zainab Salbi Zainab Salbi
Posted: September 21, 2009 12:32 PM

Where Are Iraqi Women Today?

I'm sitting by the Tigris River in Baghdad on a hot July evening. The air is still, the dust has settled, and the call for prayers is echoing over the river as it reflects lights from relatively new restaurants. I visited my mother's grave yesterday and learned that her tombstone was destroyed by a missile two years ago in one of the clashes between the militias and the US troops. "Not even the dead are spared from the bombings in Iraq," I thought to myself. But at least my mother is not witnessing the pain many Iraqi women are witnessing as they try to find space for themselves in the "new Iraq."

Few of the women of my mother's generation -- a generation of educated women who have worked in all different sectors of the country -- are still holding on. They are few -- many professional women who were doctors, professors and journalists were assassinated in the past seven years as part of what I believe is a larger, strategic approach by extremist militias to "cleanse" Iraqi society of its intellectual and professional elite. Those who have survived the killings and the temptation to leave the country in search of a safer place to live have either retreated within the home or taken advantage of quotas that have opened opportunities for women to become members of the Iraqi parliament.

Today in Iraq, women have no one unified reality. At the same time as many women increase participation in the political sector -- Iraq's Parliament and local councils are required to have 25 percent female representation -- thousands more are experiencing brutal hardship and extreme poverty. There are now more destitute women in Iraq than ever before -- estimates of the number of war widows range from one to three million. These and other socially and economically marginalized women are vulnerable and at high risk of trafficking, organized and forced prostitution, polygamy, domestic violence, and being recruited as suicide bombers, something that the society is still trying to process and understand. In a single day's journey around Baghdad, one can see all these many and conflicting realities of Iraqi women -- that was my day today.

......

By the time I arrive at Women for Women International's office, I see a woman in her fifties waiting for me to interview her for a job at Women for Women International. She had been a social worker for 25 years, worked in Sadr City throughout most of her professional career and is passionate and loving about the people in Sadr city, never questioning the fact that she is a "Sunni" woman working in a "Shia" neighborhood. She tells me, "That was the old Iraq. We worked, drove, traveled, went to universities, to parties, no one questioned us. Today, I find it hard to get my spirit back. I saw too many dead bodies and too much suffering. It was worse than the war with Iran, worse than the first Gulf War, worse even than the last Gulf War is our own civil war. That's when I stopped leaving my home. I don't know how to make sense of things anymore," she explains with a sigh.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zainab-salbi/where-are-iraqi-women-tod_b_293498.html


What Sanctions, War, Occupation Brought to Iraqi Women: Collapse of Rights

Published on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 by Common Dreams

New poll and reporting by Reuters put spotlight on deteriorating situation for women in country 'once at the vanguard of women's rights in the region'

- Andrea Germanos, staff writer

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/12-9

As independent journalist Rania Khalek explained earlier this year:

Contrary to popular imagination, Iraqi women enjoyed far more freedom under Saddam Hussein’s secular Ba’athist government than women in other Middle Eastern countries. In fact, equal rights for women were enshrined in Iraq’s Constitution in 1970, including the right to vote, run for political office, access education and own property. Today, these rights are all but absent under the U.S.-backed government of Nouri al-Maliki.

Prior to the devastating economic sanctions of the 1990s, Iraq’s education system was top notch and female literacy rates were the highest in the region, reaching 87 percent in 1985. Education was a major priority for Saddam Hussein’s regime, so much so that in 1982 Iraq received the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) award for eradicating illiteracy. But the education system crumbled from financial decay under the weight of the sanctions pushing over 20 percent of Iraqi children out of school by 2000 and reversing decades of literacy gains. Today, a quarter of Iraqi women are illiterate, more than double the rate for Iraqi men (11 percent). Female illiteracy in rural areas alone is as high as 50 percent.

Women were integral to Iraq’s economy and held high positions in both the private and public sectors, thanks in large part to labor and employment laws that guaranteed equal pay, six months fully paid maternity leave and protection from sexual harassment. In fact, it can be argued that some of the conditions enjoyed by working women in Iraq before the war rivaled those of working women in the United States.

Years of devastating sanctions followed by war, occupation and the U.S.-backed government of Nouri al-Maliki brought devastating effects to women in Iraq.

Sorry cali, don't want to hijack your thread .... just a bit more info on what the women in Iraq have been through. I just can't get over how horrible for them it's gotten. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024634075

[etherealtruth]

21. Very true ...

(I doubt anyone would see this a hijack of the thread, you provide good info)

Dating back to the first Gulf War and sanctions following the US has been complicit in the destruction of women's rights in Iraq. The results are not a surprise to anyone .

[cali]

23. I appreciate the info you provide in this post, polly. thanks

[polly7]

24. Thank you for the thread and all this new information. It's just so sad:( nt.

[randome]

11. In other words, they're turning into Arizona.

Or North Carolina. Or Utah. Texas.

Eastern world dumb-asses not much different from those in the western world.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[former9thward]

13. False equivalency. As usual.

Please point out the law or laws in those states equivalent to the ones the OP is about.

[siligut]

26. The cults in Utah are only concerned with "God's" laws

Not false, just a matter of degree.

[former9thward]

28. You can find cults anywhere.

The Jim Jones cult started in San Francisco. Last time I looked the cults are not making state laws. So I ask again since you did not provide an answer, what state laws are equivalent to the laws described in the OP?

[siligut]

31. And I told you that the FLDS cults don't abide by state laws

The cults in Utah are fundie Mormons. When US law does intervene, it becomes such a mess that nothing changes. This is about an FLDS cult in Texas.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.religion.mormon/8bdU0M07UmQ

The state has said that nearly 60 percent of the 14- to 17-year-old
girls in custody are pregnant or already have children. Many refused to
take pregnancy tests, the agency said Wednesday.

Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent
to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at
16, but the sect's girls are not believed to have legal marriages...

...Cockerell told lawmakers the investigation has been difficult because
members of the church have refused to cooperate. Parents coached
children not to answer questions and children _ even breast-feeding
infants _ were switched around to different mothers in what Cockerell
called a coordinated effort to deceive.

[former9thward]

32. There are cults everywhere.

They are not making state laws. But we are just like Iraq. Ok....

[siligut]

38. Yes, now you get it . . .

FLDS cults don't abide by state laws, they say god's law is the highest law and god's laws just happen to be so similar to Iraq's Shi'ite Islamic jurisprudence when it comes to women's rights.

[former9thward]

44. They don't have the force of government law.

They are isolated groups. Keep on digging...

[siligut]

46. They have the force of god

Isolated within areas that allow them to exist and grow. Keep on denying . . .

[cali]

17. that's obscene and flat out absurd.

It's vile and disgusting to minimize this by comparing the perils that women face there with Arizona or NC- not to mention none too swift- to put it very kindly.

[randome]

25. I wasn't minimizing it. Simply pointing out that there are crazies on both sides of the world.

My comment wasn't intended to be 'comforting' or 'minimalist'.

Human nature appears to be deeply flawed. The Eastern World sometimes seems hellbent on bringing about what some parts of the Western World would like to see.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[cali]

29. that may not be your intent, but that's what your comment does

of course human nature is deeply flawed. hardly a revelation. it's just dumb to compare Arizona with Afghanistan.

[MNBrewer]

12. But all the Iraqi people are better off without Saddam Hussein!

[malaise]

39. Every bomb that kills Iraqi people is part of the Bush legacy

Further lots of academics were slaughtered by Bushco and his goons.

[City Lights]

14. Thanks, George!

Everything he touched turned into a steaming pile of shit.

[sakabatou]

15. Thanks, Shrub.

[azurnoir]

27. Oh but Saddam and WMD are no longer a threat

so it was all worth it-right ?

[sibelian]

30. Well.

That's pretty much exactly what I expected and I think this entire game is just fucked up.

[CanonRay]

35. Well, that war sure was worth the price!

After all, we now have "democracy" in Iraq, it is stable, free and progressive, we got all their WMD as well. Way to go W!

[Lizzie Poppet]

37. Thank goodness we spent thousands of lives and billion$ to give them freedom!

You can lead a horse out of the Dark Ages, but you can't make him drink...

[polly7]

42. Iraqi women were once 'out' of the Dark Ages.

Last edited Fri Mar 14, 2014, 11:15 AM - Edit history (1)

Iraq was, prior to the invasion, a fiercely secular country, with a broadly equal male, female workforce and with women benefiting from a National Personal Status Law, introduced in 1959, which remained “one of the most liberal in the Arab world, with respect to women’s rights.”

The legal age for marriage was set at eighteen, forced marriages were banned and polygamy restricted. Cohesion between communities was enhanced and fostered by “eliminating the differential treatment of Sunnis and Shiites under the law (and erasing differentiation) between the various religious communities …” Women’s rights in divorce, child custody and inheritance were an integral part of the Law, with Article 14 stating that all Iraqis are equal under the law.

Equality was swept away from the first day of the invasion when George W. Bush and his Administration started to talk of Sunni, Shiite, Kurds, Christians and other religions and ethnicities and also effectively selecting the overseers of the “New Iraq” not by ability but by religion and ethnicity, effectively pitching Iraqi against Iraqi in what, for all the complexities, had been a very cohesive society. “Divide and rule” pervaded all.....

Silent is Ann Clwyd, MP., formerly Tony Blair’s Human Rights Envoy to Iraq and currently Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group and of the All Party Parliamentary Iraq Group, as is Middle East “Peace Envoy” Tony “I’d do it again” Blair, as are the US and British Ambassadors in Iraq and the self appointed “Vicar of Baghdad” Canon Andrew White.

Felicity Arbuthnot / March 13th, 2014

http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/03/the-us-and-britains-paedophile-colony/

[Pretzel_Warrior]

40. They're almost as radical as our GOP-controlled House

Of Product Endorsers.

[cali]

41. another pointless and silly comparison that makes light of a real tragedy

and anyone who voted for the obscene piece of dog shit blank check IWR bears some responsibility for this.

Yeah, genius women's right promoting Hillary and JK as well.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

43. My point is I don't think it makes it into law just like

The outrageous bullshit coming from GOP in congress.

So you are saying Saddam killed his own people, terrorized and made war with his neighbors, had rape rooms....but at least he would be better than an Islamic democracy debating law on women's rights?

[polly7]

45. Pathetic. nt.

[siligut]

47. ". . . . raise awareness about child marriages, modern slavery and human trafficking . . ."

1StrongBlackMan posted this in the HOF group, I thought it was appropriate here also.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/125540280
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/international-womens-day-magazines_n_4921241.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

Catapult, a crowdfunding site that advocates for global gender equality, recently launched a campaign featuring magazine covers depicting the human rights violations women face internationally. With the aim of making International Women’s Day “more than just a cover story,” Catapult played with iconic magazine titles including Bride, Good Housekeeping and Seventeen, transforming them into Child Bride, Good Slavekeeping and Thirteen to raise awareness about child marriages, modern slavery and human trafficking, respectively.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[randome]

48. Satire can be so on-the-mark sometimes!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game. -Existenz[/center][/font][hr]

[SomethingFishy]

49. Spreading Democracy all over the globe!!!

How many lives? How much money? And the goal was what again?

[Sissyk]

50. K&R

[applegrove]

52. ****!